


and all I can do is keep falling in love

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, I can't quit writing the lady!harurins help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:50:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5695441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While hanging out at Haruka's house one afternoon, Rin wonders why Haruka grew her hair out (aka I decided to write my hair headcanons for the lady!harurins).</p>
            </blockquote>





	and all I can do is keep falling in love

“Kawabata Yasunari famously used Echigo-Yuzawa as the backdrop of his novel _Snow Country_ , basing it on his own experiences visiting the area. It’s easy to see why Echigo-Yuzawa captured his imagination — there’s something in the air here. Or should I say, in the water.” The narrator of _Japan’s Famous Mineral Springs and Me’s Annual DVD of the Best Winter Vacation Spots_ paused while the screen transitioned from snow covered mountains to steam rising from an outdoor bath. “One of my favorite places to stay in is Hotel Futaba which boasts over twenty different baths to try out — assuming I don’t get stuck enjoying the private bath in my room!” The narrator chuckled as the screen flashed to a luxurious looking private bath.

Rin placed her chin on Haruka’s shoulder, pressing her chest closer to Haruka’s back in the process.

“So this is what gets you hot and bothered, huh?”

A bony elbow jabbed her in the stomach.

“Ow!”

“Quiet, you’re missing the best part.” Haruka hadn’t taken her eyes off the screen.

The last time Rin had slept over she’d spilled tea on herself and had been forced to strip to her underwear, all while trying not to scream at the sensation of scalding hot water on her thighs. As Haruka had been preoccupied with soaking into oblivion in the bathtub, Rin had taken the liberty to look for something to wear without bothering to ask first. As she searched through Haruka's drawers, tossing aside everything covered in ugly marine life, she’d spotted something shoved away in a drawer, clearly hidden away on purpose. Naturally, Rin’s curiosity had been piqued. She was pretty sure she knew what Haruka was hiding, or at least the general gist of it. She would just take a small peek, that was all, and then maybe drop some hints about it the next time they got intimate, try to encourage Haruka to show it to her on her own. But what she had found wasn’t like that at all. It was a DVD about mineral springs. Rin had stared it, confused, wondering if maybe the DVD inside was of something else. Maybe Haruka was trying to throw people off by hiding porn in an innocent looking nature DVD case?

When the DVD inside had matched the contents of the case it started to dawn on Rin she was in fact holding porn, just not the kind of porn normal human beings got off to. _Oh my god_ , she’d thought, _Haru gets off to images of water_. Just moments before she’d been half convinced she’d found Haruka’s secret vibrator. As if that had ever been a possibility. This was Haruka. She was probably more than content with her faucet and shower head.

It was of course at that moment Haruka chose to burst into her room, finding Rin standing there in her underwear, her face bright red, staring at Haruka’s water porn DVD.

“I can explain,” Rin said when Haruka had gone wide-eyed.

That was how Rin had found herself watching Haruka’s super secret DVD a few weeks later; Haruka siting between her legs while Rin snuggled into her. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as Rin had thought it would be. Haruka had claimed she kept the DVD hidden away because it was a special collector’s piece and not for whatever dirty reason Rin’s mind had jumped to (“I don’t want it to get damaged,” she’d said). That bathtub thing though, that was totally true and Rin was free to join her if she wished (Rin had sputtered something about “maybe next time”).

The screen was showing an (admittedly very beautiful) outdoor bath. Snow fell in the background, and the narrator waxed lyrical about the healing properties of the water in Echigo-Yuzawa.

It was dreadfully boring.

Rin needed to find something else to entertain herself with. She scooted back a bit and scanned Haruka’s living room. There was a cabinet nearby but that was about it. While wondering about what to do, her eyes focused in on the sight Haruka’s long, dark hair in front of her. It cascaded down her back, perfectly straight, the ends blunt. When they were children she’d kept it in a short bob, barely longer than Rin’s hair.

She combed her fingers through it. Hours of chlorine hadn’t dulled its shine or stopped it from feeling like silk. Haruka used special essential oils on it but even then there was no way its condition wasn’t partly the result of winning the genetic lottery. Rin’s hair only stayed as soft as it did because she kept it short, cutting off the ends before they got too dry.

“Why’d you grow it out?” Rin asked, curious. Drying that much hair had to be a real pain and Haruka wasn’t the type of person to make extra work for herself.

“Huh?” Haruka was focused on the TV; the camera panned in on a large indoor bath in an oddly sensual way (Haruka could deny it was porn all she wanted but there was definitely something weird about that DVD).

“Your hair. You used to keep it short when we were children.” She separated Haruka’s hair into three thick sections and began to braid it.

“I stopped cutting it after I quit swimming.” Rin’s hands shook; her breath hitched. Haruka said it casually, as though it was a simple coincidence but Rin knew better. She'd cut it _because_ she'd quit swimming. It made a horrible type of sense. They didn't talk about what Haruka did after she'd quit swimming but Rin knew from others that she'd been noticeably depressed and it filled her with shame to know she'd caused that. It was never her intention to make Haruka suffer but she'd been too caught up in her own pain to realize the ramifications of running away from Haruka after their fateful race.

“Why, do you like it better short?” It was a completely unexpected question. It caught Rin off guard and pulled her out of the dark corner of her mind she'd began to retreat into. She smiled and continued braiding Haruka’s hair, her hands steady once again.

“That’s not it. It’s beautiful at any length. I just thought you’d find long hair bothersome.”

Haruka shrugged. “It takes forever to dry but I don’t have to go to the hairdresser as often, which is nice.”

“What about your bangs?”

“I do them myself between visits.”

“I see. That makes sense.” Haruka’s bangs weren’t straight, making it easy for an amateur to maintain. Small mistakes wouldn’t be noticed, or better yet, look purposeful.

“What about you?”

“I cut all of my hair myself,” said Rin proudly. “It took a while to get the hang of it but now it only takes me a few minutes.” She had started doing it herself after a hairdresser in Australia had messed it all up, giving it a softer, fluffier look. _It looked too boyish before,_ she'd said, _People might get the wrong idea_. Rin had even started styling it differently after that, making it look even harsher out of spite.

Haruka twisted around and examined Rin’s hair, paying close attention to the ends. She was so close to Rin; it gave her the chance to really look at her, to take in every small flaw of her skin, to notice the way her eyelashes were thicker at the edges of her eyelids.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” she said, water DVD entirely forgotten as she went through another section of hair. She was fully turned around now, sitting on her knees between Rin’s legs to better focus on finding the flaws in Rin’s haircut.

“Are you picking a fight with me?”

“Wait, I see something. This bit is uneven.”

“Where?”

She pulled a section of hair into Rin’s line of sight. “Here.”

“That’s on purpose you jerk.”

Haruka gave her a look like she didn’t believe her. ”Can you cut my hair?” she asked out of nowhere.

Rin blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Maybe shoulder length? Something simple, not like…" She gestured at Rin’s hair.

Rin snorted. Of course Haruka would insult her while asking for something. “You sure? I don’t want to pressure you into cutting your hair.”

Haruka shook her head. “You didn’t pressure me. You just reminded me that I liked it when it was short.”

Rin tucked her hair behind her ears and looked into Haruka’s eyes, smiling. "Okay. I’ll cut it.”

 

* * *

 

_Snip, snip._ Dark hair fell onto the bathroom floor.

Rin stepped back to admire her work. She scowled; she’d made it bit crooked. No matter, she could fix that.

A few snips later she was satisfied everything was in order. Only it wasn’t. She’d overdone it. Now the right side was longer than the left. She snipped some more and then clicked her tongue. It was now in a V-shape and Haruka had wanted it straight. That was easy enough to solve, just trim a bit more from the middle.

Now it was crooked again.

Rin grew increasingly frustrated, giving Haruka’s hair minuscule trims to even things out only to find she had created some other problem instead.

“How much more are you going to cut?” Haruka asked.

Rin froze. “Uh…” She took a good look at Haruka’s hair and panicked. It was not shoulder length. It was chin length. At least the back was. She’d completely forgotten about the front. “Shit.” Her eyes stung with tears. “I messed up, Haru. I’m so sorry.”

Haruka sighed. “I kind of noticed.” She gestured at the mirror with her chin. “Don’t worry about it. It will grow back.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again, trying not to cry at how she’d butchered Haruka’s beautiful hair.

“Here, give me the scissors.”

Rin meekly handed them over.

With surprising dexterity Haruka reached around to fix the back, opting to work with the long hair in front to turn it into an angled bob. When she was done it looked quite stylish — no one would be able to guess it was the result of fixing a mistake. Rin was relieved — she just hoped Haruka didn’t regret her new hairstyle.

“How does it look?” Haruka asked.

“It suits you,” said Rin. She wasn’t just saying it to be nice. The angled cut framed her face perfectly without weighing her face down and made her look mature and playful at the same time. It was a better cut than the simple bob Rin had been trying to give her.

Haruka looked at herself in the mirror, fluffing up the back of her hair and playing around with the front pieces.

“I think it will be good for swimming,” she said.

“Probably,” said Rin. She moved a strand of hair out of Haruka’s face. “You’re beautiful.” Haruka looked away shyly, a small blush forming on her cheeks.

“Thanks.” They were both leaning against the sink, their bodies angled towards each other. Haruka stared at her in that way that made Rin feel utterly exposed, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling when it was Haruka looking at her like that. “Help me clean up? Then we can finish _Japan’s Famous Mineral Springs and Me’s Annual DVD of the Best Winter Vacation Spots_.”

“Sure,” said Rin, trying to sound enthusiastic.

There was amusement in Haruka’s eyes as she leaned in to kiss her. “I’ll go grab a broom,” she said, pulling away much too soon.

“Mmm,” was all Rin could say in response.

Rin smiled to herself when she was gone, thinking about how much fun it would be to visit mineral springs with Haruka. Her excited face when she'd see the water in real life, her beautiful body as she entered their private bath — yes, they'd definitely have to take a trip together sometime.

**Author's Note:**

> I love harurin [thumbs up emoji]


End file.
